This study is based on interviews with a sample of fifty members of the Lok Sabha in late 1974 and early 1975. It shows that a high proportion of the problems brought to MPs by constituents are individual in nature rather than community-wide, including particularly requests for assistance in getting public and private jobs and preferential treatment within the civil service. Most MPs report that a majority of the problems raised by constituents actually come within the jurisdiction of the state rather than the central government. Most MPs believe that they ought to try to meet individual constituent needs. They report that success in doing so depends heavily on informal techniques, developing contacts with both ministers and civil servants and with officials of the state governments. The conscientious MP faces a number of difficulties, involving both geographic distances and the allocation of time, in trying to maintain close linkages with his constituents.
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Shriram Maheshwari (1976) studied this question.